Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty

Daron Acemoglu · James A. Robinson

Mar 2012 · Profile Books

About this ebook

Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2012.

Why are some nations more prosperous than others? Why Nations Fail sets out to answer this question, with a compelling and elegantly argued new theory: that it is not down to climate, geography or culture, but because of institutions. Drawing on an extraordinary range of contemporary and historical examples, from ancient Rome through the Tudors to modern-day China, leading academics Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson show that to invest and prosper, people need to know that if they work hard, they can make money and actually keep it - and this means sound institutions that allow virtuous circles of innovation, expansion and peace.

Based on fifteen years of research, and answering the competing arguments of authors ranging from Max Weber to Jeffrey Sachs and Jared Diamond, Acemoglu and Robinson step boldly into the territory of Francis Fukuyama and Ian Morris. They blend economics, politics, history and current affairs to provide a new, powerful and persuasive way of understanding wealth and poverty.

Ratings and reviews

The argument made in this book is extremely convincing. The authors support it with NUMEROUS cases, from the Aztecs to America to the French revolution, to Japan and Botswana and so many more. The cases are so good that the book serves as a good book on history in its own right. The authors actually answer the question of why nations fail, and they do so convincingly. This is the kind of book any person, especially academics, interested in politics should read. It will change your outlook on the world.

Its a history lesson, yet half my questions are answered. Many countries with distributable power and politics running democracy and still poor. Example : Indonesia. Thus! Their theory still not applicable and invalid.

good book but too repetitive in its main point, which in my opinion is also debatable

About the author

Daron Acemoglu is the Killian Professor of Economics at MIT and recipient of the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal. James A. Robinson is a political scientist and economist and the David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University, and a world-renowned expert on Latin America and Africa.

They are the authors of Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, which won numerous prizes.